


Unexpected

by turtlebook



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Babies, Extremely Inconvenient Babies, F/M, Unplanned Pregnancy, just wait till Clarke finds out about this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9457169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtlebook/pseuds/turtlebook
Summary: Abby makes an announcement that throws a wrench in all of Marcus's plans. Typical Abby.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Starts off in episode 2x03. The opening chapter contains several lines quoted directly from the shock-lashing scene.

A small crowd had already gathered by the time Major Byrne and the other guards escorted Abby out to where Marcus was waiting. 

"What is this?" Abby said as she walked right up to him. 

She hadn't been told what was about to happen, clearly, but even if she had known he had no doubt she would have been just as bold, just as openly defiant. Possibly even more so, knowing her.

Knowing her as well as he did didn't make what he was about to do to her any easier. But it was for the good of their people, he reminded himself. Under these circumstances that had to be his first consideration.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Abby," he said, looking down at her, "but you left me no choice."

Major Byrne raised her voice to be heard by all present. "Abigail Griffin has confessed to aiding and abetting known criminals, and trafficking in firearms. Under the laws set forth in the Exodus Charter of the Ark, she's been sentenced to 10 lashes."

Expressions of shock spread through the crowd, and Abby was incredulous. "You can't be serious," she said.

"On your command, Chancellor Kane," Byrne said.

He was going to hate himself for this. He knew that with full certainty as soon as he saw in her eyes the moment Abby realised he wasn't going to back down.

Because she had believed he wasn't capable of it - he, who barely more than a month ago had put her in an airlock, prepared to execute her by his own hand. And now she was disappointed in him? Somewhere in the intervening time, short as it was, he had gained some value in her eyes. 

He didn't know how it had happened. He knew only that the worst part of this was going to be the loss of that small shred of her good opinion. 

He stepped aside and nodded for them to proceed.

Two guards closed in, taking her arms to lead her forward.

"Wait," Abby said, "hold on, you can't do this. Marcus -"

He was surprised when Abby resisted, struggling to remain where she was as she tried to continue speaking to him. He had seen Abby Griffin stoic and composed even in the face of her own death on the Ark - she hadn't fought the consequences of her actions then. But she was fighting now. She dug in her heels while two of his men practically dragged her towards the set of standing poles erected for this sole purpose.

"Stop, you really - you really can't do this."

He had no wish to do this, of course, but it was necessary, and the decision had been made. He frowned at the urgency in her voice, though. It never occurred to him that she would protest so stridently on her own behalf.

The guards had brought her over into place and as they turned her to face the crowd she stared right at him.

"Marcus, you need to listen to me. You _can't do this,_ " she insisted, lifting her voice so that her next words could be heard loud and clear: "because I'm pregnant."

With these words, everything seemed to grind to a halt.

The guards paused uncertainly in the act of tying Abby's wrists to the posts. The disapproving murmurs of the spectators dropped suddenly away into silence.

Everything was silent, in fact, for a few seconds.

"You're what?" he said dumbly, staring across the space between them, at her face which had lost all sign of apprehension and was once again showing only that stubborn expression of hers with which he was so familiar.

"Sir..." Major Byrne began to protest, but even she didn't seem to know what to say.

Where they had all lost composure, Abby quickly regained hers. "You can't use a shock baton on me, certainly not repeatedly, there's an associated risk of miscarriage," she explained, glaring at first one guard then the other until they allowed her to lower her outstretched arms.

Pregnant? She was _pregnant?_ That simply made no sense.

"But how can you be...?" He couldn't even get the word out. 

"Is that really a question you expect me to answer right now?" she said.

He was dimly aware that half the camp by now had gathered and was watching this happen, and of the growing rumbles of dissent from all around. What was to have been a public demonstration of the consequences of defying the rule of order here on the ground had turned into - well, he had no idea what this had turned into.

Certainly it was nothing that he had intended.

And then, finally, the real meaning of her words filtered through to him. Not to mention the way she was looking pointedly at him.

How could she be pregnant?

Slowly, haltingly, his mind began to comprehend that if Abby was pregnant, then it was possible - indeed likely - that he knew exactly how it had happened. And when it had happened. Three months ago. The one and only time he and Abby had ever -

"Sir, she could just be saying this to avoid punishment," Byrne said.

"Why would I announce something not only deeply personal but also so easily disproved if it wasn't the truth?" Abby snapped back. "I took a test a few days ago; the results are recorded in my medical file. Feel free to have Dr Jackson repeat the test if you don't believe me."

"This is just further proof of her defiance of the law," Byrne pressed on. "She's admitted to an infraction of our one-child policy on top of her other crimes."

"Does that policy even still apply? Should I submit to a mandatory termination before or after the public beating? I've performed enough procedures like that myself, perhaps you think one more on the books won't matter, Chancellor Kane." Abby's eyes blazed at him as she spoke. "Or is it possible that we need to reassess our notion of law and order now that we're beginning a new life, a new way of being, for all of us here on the ground. All of us, and all of our children."

He had not wanted to have her punished in such a brutal way - but at this moment he almost wished it were possible because the entire point of this endeavour had been to make an example of her. It was supposed to help him keep order - order that was vital if he was to keep everyone safe and alive.

And with this announcement she had ensured the effect would be the exact opposite.

She had completely undercut his authority, was preaching for a complete overhaul of the Exodus Charter to a wrapt crowd, and had ensured that any repercussions for herself would be minimal. 

He'd be forced to admire it if he weren't so utterly shaken to his core. _Pregnant._

While he was still floundering, Byrne was attempting to rally. "Look, you can't be that far along, I'm sure any effects on a pregnancy would be minimal."

"Are you a doctor? Are you aware of the effects of that kind of systemic trauma on a gestating woman and the developing foetus? The risk of miscarriage is significant."

"How convenient."

" _Convenient,_ " Abby repeated, her tone dripping with derision, making it extremely clear what she thought of the assertion that anything about this situation was convenient.

Byrne gave up on reasoning with Abby, turning back to him. "Sir, we could find an alternative implement. If it's the electric shock that's the problem -"

"There won't be any corporal punishment," he said, finally finding his voice after what seemed like an age. "Let her go."

The guards maintaining position on either side of Abby stepped back at his directive.

"Sir, I have to protest, the regulations are clear."

He couldn't even muster a glare as Byrne refused to give up. There was no salvaging the situation, whether she was willing to admit it or not. He sighed. "The regulations make allowance for alternate disciplinary measures if the individual is determined to be physically or mentally unfit for corporal punishment. Doctor Griffin will be confined to her quarters, when not performing her duties, until further notice." 

Abby's gaze burned into him for a moment, and then, head held high, she walked away.

The crowd parted to let her pass, Jackson moving quickly to fall into step at her side. Some watched her go with blatant curiosity, others with something like awe. Marcus followed along at a slight distance and hardly anyone paid him any mind. She had well and truly won the day.

When they were almost back at the medical tent he lengthened his stride to catch up with her. "Abby."

The woman who stopped and turned to face him didn't look particularly triumphant. She looked, quite simply, the way she always did to him: defiant, determined, fierce, beautiful.

"Dr Jackson, I trust you're able to handle things in medical for the rest of the day?" he said, barely sparing the younger man a glance.

Jackson barely spared him one in return, looking instead to Abby. "It's fine," she said. "Go on. Send for me in my quarters if there's an emergency." She waited till he had gone before continuing. "I assume that's where I'll be, confined to quarters. Sure you're not going to throw me in a cell?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do," he said, and it was the truth.

Another moment passed and he turned to head back into the station, and so did she.

"It's yours. If you were wondering," she said after a minute of silence between them.

"I - well, yes. I thought as much." Hearing the confirmation from her lips was something else, though. "Are you all right?"

"Well since we skipped the flogging, I'm doing okay."

"I mean - I only meant - are you, is everything... all right?"

She looked over at him curiously but he couldn't meet her eye. "I'm fine," she said.

He thought of everything that she had been through recently and wondered how she could be. 

They reached the room she had claimed as her own temporary accommodations in one of the currently habitable parts of the Ark. When she opened the door and then rounded on him he was reminded that he was no longer the man she believed capable of better things. No, he hadn't gone ahead with the lashing, but only because she had tied his hands. And she was still furious about it.

"Were you going to tell me?" he said, forestalling whatever cutting remark she was about to make.

"Eventually," she replied, "you would have figured it out on your own. Yes, I was going to tell you. But like I said, I only confirmed it a few days ago, and I've had other things on my mind."

"Like plotting sedition. I imagine that has kept you quite busy."

"Like my _daughter_."

She had more than one child to think about now, though, he thought. Some instinct for self-preservation prevented him from saying it.

She stood waiting for him to make some response, but he was still somewhat at a loss. 

"You're certain you're all right?" was all he could find to say.

"As certain as I can be."

"What does that mean?"

She shrugged. "It means what it means." 

"What -"

"Marcus." She was frustrated with him. She sighed, and to his surprise stepped back into her room while holding the door open for him. "You should probably come in. I guess we need to talk."


	2. Chapter 2

Abby felt some of the strength drain out of her as the door closed and she found herself alone with Kane. She moved over and lowered herself onto the edge of the small table - the only other place to sit being the narrow cot along one wall.

It was a small, cluttered space, but as a former councillor and Head of Medical she at least warranted a room to herself. Most of the rest of the camp's population were making do with shared accommodations in far more rough and ready conditions than this.

There wasn't enough room to pace in; if there had been she thought Kane would have made good use of it. But he couldn't, so he fidgeted instead. He crossed his arms and uncrossed them, ran a hand over his face, straightened his jacket, braced a hand against the door then straightened again. She had none of his nervous energy. Away from the eyes of the rest of the camp she sagged as soon as her weight was off her feet, weariness settling in her bones.

She'd been tired, running on fumes it seemed for days, weeks, months. Sheer determination and bloody-mindedness kept her going most of the time but sometimes it caught up with her. And after facing down Chancellor Kane and Major Byrne who were bent on subjecting her to that barbaric sentence, talking her way out of it only by announcing to the whole camp extremely private information she'd barely begun to come to terms with herself...

Well there was no taking it back now. Everybody knew. _He_ knew.

"Abby," he said, finally breaking the silence. He'd settled into something like parade rest, standing there just inside the door. The soldier's stance gave him an air of confidence she wasn't sure he would be pulling off otherwise.

There was a small part of her that was pleased to see how off balance he was. But then, the man had just tried to have her strung up and flogged in order to make an example of her to the rest of camp. She felt pretty well justified enjoying his discomposure. 

She certainly wasn't going to be forgetting any time soon the look on his face when she announced her pregnancy to the world. It was a small advantage that might make getting through the rest of this conversation a little easier.

She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to go on.

"You were the one who wanted to talk," he said with an air of petulance.

"I said we should, not that I wanted to. If you have nothing to say, then okay, I should really be getting back to medical." She pushed herself off the table's edge.

"Abby -" he cut off, giving her a frustrated look. 

She sat back again. "Just ask."

"I don't know what to ask. I don't know what to think. What are we supposed to do with a baby for god's sake?"

"What people usually do with babies, probably."

His bewildered expression turned into a glare. "I'm glad you can be so calm about this."

"Well I've had a little more time to process." 

It was a glib reply but the truth was the child she was carrying was as safe as she could currently make it. Which wasn't all that safe, considering the dangers posed merely by being here on the ground in hostile territory. But still, being pregnant wasn't her primary concern right now. Clarke and the other missing kids were. She was willing to have it out with Kane about her condition, however, if it meant they could get back to focusing on more pressing issues.

"Yes, when exactly did you find out about this?" he said.

She frowned slightly at the question. "I already told you -"

"A few days ago, you said. But we've only been on Earth for a few days and they have been... hectic. It seems like odd timing."

This was what he was focusing on? She thought for sure he'd want to know how this had even happened, given the contraceptive devices that all women of the Ark had implanted in their arms from the onset of puberty, and which they kept until menopause - not counting temporary removal in order to bear one authorised child.

"You didn't know before then?" he pressed when she didn't answer straight away.

She sighed. "It was when the Exodus ship was hijacked. After that... That's when I knew."

He blanched. "Diana's men - they knocked you out with a shock baton."

She nodded. "And then left me to die in an airless, overheating service bay. I had some... there was a small amount of bleeding related to the trauma."

" _Bleeding?_ " He looked somewhere between alarmed and aghast.

Which was not unlike how she had felt when, still recovering from the ordeal, she had found those spots of blood in her underwear. The bleeding hadn't continued but that alone had been enough. 

"It resolved itself quickly," she said. "It was really just enough to get my attention. I had some other symptoms but I'd been ignoring them, putting it down to stress - and suddenly it all added up and I couldn't ignore the signs any longer. Of course by then it didn't matter, because I thought we weren't going to make it to Earth, we were all dead in a matter of days."

"Oh."

She nodded grimly. "It wasn't exactly a time for celebrating. But I went through the motions anyway, because I wanted to know. I just... I wanted to know. So I ran a blood test. Shut myself in my office with a portable scanner. Saw the heartbeat."

And cried. 

At her age, under those circumstance, it was such a wildly unlikely thing to find herself carrying a baby - and there was nothing she could do about it. She was never going to hold that baby in her arms, any more than she could save that little girl on her operating table. Any more than she could help Clarke down on the ground.

She had never felt so helpless in her life. Alone in her office on the failing Ark she had watched that tiny heart beating quick and steady and she had cried like she hadn't since the day Jake had died and they had taken Clarke from her.

She didn't relate any of that to Kane, of course. She was willing to tell him the truth, but only to a point.

He was watching her with his shrewd, assessing gaze. She felt like she'd already said too much. 

"Have you gotten any information from the grounder prisoner yet?" she said.

"What? No, I haven't. I should be conducting the interrogation right now but instead -"

"You're interrogating me. Well go on, you're lucky I'm in a forthcoming mood so you don't need to break out the torture devices. Already tried that once today, look how that turned out."

His mouth twisted slightly, a sure sign of annoyance. "Very well. Since you're being forthcoming, I have to ask - I assume there was some... malfunction of your implant?"

There was the question she'd been waiting for. 

Unplanned pregnancies were rare on the Ark, but they did happen - no contraceptive method was 100% effective and the implants occasionally failed to work as they should. It would have been easy to allow him to believe that was the case here. But it wasn't the truth.

"No, it wasn't a malfunction. My implant was due to be replaced this past year, but I never bothered to have it done."

He blinked. "You never _bothered?_ "

She shrugged. "The automatic notification showed up just a little while after Jake... died. And it seemed too trivial to even think about at the time. Besides, I knew - I assumed - I wouldn't need it. There didn't seem to be any rush. After that it honestly just... slipped my mind."

"It slipped your mind."

"There was a lot of other stuff going on," she said, bristling at his tone. "The Ark was dying, we were preparing to send the kids to the ground. I was grieving for my husband." 

"So you just didn't have an active implant. That's - that's _against regulations_."

"I know." Her mouth twisted wryly. "How many lashes is that? You can add it to my tab."

"This isn't amusing from where I'm standing."

"Do you see me laughing?"

"I see you, once again, believing the rules don't apply to you, and now... God, Abby, that was so irresponsible."

"Are you mad at me because I'm pregnant, or are you mad at me because I ruined your little plan to subdue the masses?" 

"Mad at you? Oh come on, Abby, don't act like this is some silly little lovers' spat we're having. I'm talking about you once again making reckless emotional decisions without considering the consequences and the effects they might have on other people."

Arms crossed, Abby glared at him. If there was one thing she wasn't in the mood for right now it was being scolded _again_ by Marcus Kane. 

"You know, this was your doing, too, if you remember. I didn't get myself pregnant."

"Oh, I remember."

The words hung in the air between them, the sudden silence charged with the irrefutable fact that they both remembered it, that thing they had never discussed since the day it happened.

Three months ago, when all the frustration and ire between them had grown teeth and claws and, unexpectedly, heat and passion too, leading to an encounter that neither of them had walked away from unscathed. But it was never intended that it should go further than that one isolated incident.

If, after that day, their eyes meeting across the council table held a little something extra to fuel their usual lively debates, the reason was a secret to everyone but themselves and they certainly weren't talking about it. Especially not to each other.

But there was no avoiding it now. No pretending nothing had changed between them.

She had come harder than she had in years while he fucked her over the desk in his office. That was the kind of experience that changed a girl whether she wound up pregnant or not.

While she was contemplating that particular hard truth, he was silent for a long moment.

Then he moved suddenly. He had been leaning with his shoulder against the door and when he pushed away from it and came closer her breath caught. Whatever she thought his intentions were in that split second, she was entirely wrong. He merely crossed in front of her over to the low cot and sat down heavily on it. He braced his elbows on his knees and leaned his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry," he said, which was probably the most surprising thing of all that had happened today. "This is a lot to take in."

He looked, and sounded, lost. She felt a sudden urge to reassure him, but quickly dismissed it. He refused to do anything to look for the missing kids. He wanted to have her shock-lashed for the crime of doing something to find them where he had failed. 

She didn't owe him any kind of comforting gesture.

She did owe him something, though - a way out.

"Right. Well, I'm sorry, too. My irresponsible actions have stuck you in the middle of this with me. You don't need to have any part of it, you know. If anyone's curious about who the father is, I guess I can always lie - say it was someone who didn't make it to the ground. It's no less believable than the truth."

"Of course, who would believe this? You and me."

There seemed to be so much in his eyes when he looked up at her, she couldn't begin to comprehend half of it. She didn't know that she wanted to. 

She wanted to be able to protest that there was no 'you and me' - that the lone encounter that had lead to all of this didn't mean anything in the long run. But there was tangible, undeniable proof growing inside her that this was a lie. 

It might be a very small thing between them, but it was real all the same. And that thing wasn't going to stay small - she felt the inevitability of it keenly. 

"Abby..." She waited, and he seemed to change his mind about what he was going to say. "So you really didn't know or - or even suspect that you might be pregnant before Diana Sydney's mutiny?"

"Why do you keep asking me about when I knew? I've told you..." She trailed off as his expression changed. All she could see on his face was shame. And she understood. "You're asking if I knew I was carrying your baby when you tried to float me."

He looked stricken, but didn't deny it.

"No, Marcus. I told you the truth, I didn't know until after the mutiny. But... don't try to pretend it would have changed anything if I told you about it then."

"I know it wouldn't have. It wouldn't have made any difference; I would have executed you just the same. If Thelonius hadn't stopped me... I didn't have a choice. That's what I always told myself."

"You made a choice today. You could have gone ahead with the lashing."

"It didn't feel in the least like I had a choice in that." He had been staring at the floor but now he looked up at her. "What do you think that means?"

"Maybe it means you have a conscience after all. I always figured you had one, you just didn't like listening to it."

"Didn't like listening to my conscience, or didn't like listening to you?" He looked down again, smiling slightly. "Possibly the same thing."

"We both did things we regret on the Ark, Marcus. I want things to be different here. And that's not just what I like to think would be for the best. I think we _need_ to change, or - I don't know what will happen. How we'll even keep going."

"Or if we deserve to? That's what it always comes back to for you."

"What will you do next time I break the rules? Because I will. If I think it will help Clarke, or any of those kids, I'll do whatever it takes. Me being pregnant doesn't change anything. And you can't keep me shut up in here forever."

He got to his feet and she found herself looking up at him once again. "Maybe I should try," he said, his tone betraying enough exasperation she didn't take him seriously.

"Good luck with that. Don't you have another prisoner to interrogate?"

"I do. He'll probably give me less trouble." He paused, looking her over. "I suppose it's too much to hope you'll actually stay here, where you're supposed to be, according to my orders. I'd rather not have to post a guard on the door."

"You said I only had to stay here when I wasn't working." She spread her hands. "I'm always working, same as you."

"Shouldn't you... rest?"

"Yeah, it's a restful situation we've landed ourselves in. I'll get right on that."

No one had the luxury of taking it easy right now, regardless of their condition. Especially not the only fully qualified doctor they had. He knew it as well as she did, and nodded in reluctant acknowledgement. 

He turned to go but hesitated once he stood in the open doorway and looked back at her. "Abby, you're wrong. You being pregnant, it changes everything." 

"It doesn't have to."

"It does, actually. Perhaps not for you - you're already a mother, you already have a family. But you're telling me I'm going to have a child, and you think nothing has changed?"

"Being a parent changes you in ways you can't imagine. But that's irrelevant if you're not willing to at least try to change the world around you. What kind of world do you want this baby to be living in when it arrives?"

He left without giving her an answer. She could only hope that maybe just this once he would listen to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The shock lashing scene is such a pivotal moment for Marcus's character, it sets him on his path for the entire rest of the show. The goal in this story is for him to reach a similar place through different means. Less brutal punishments and more fun surprise baby feels. Probably about the same amount of sexual tension, though, because kabby.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Marcus is a giant ball of feelings. (Much like I am waiting for tomorrow's episode...)
> 
> Once again there are a few lines quoted from episode 2x03.

After speaking with Abby his thoughts were in turmoil. But there was no respite to be had.

He left her quarters and went to do his job, sitting in the cell where the grounder prisoner was being kept, watching Major Byrne make absolutely no headway in getting the man to talk. It did little for his state of mind.

He had wanted to avoid a harsh penalty for Abby but as tension and disorder in camp had risen he had felt, once again, it was necessary to take the hard line. 

But had it been? Or was he simply falling back on what he knew, unable or just plain afraid to pursue something different - something better. 

_Necessary._ What was necessary? Was this necessary, sitting here interrogating a man whose land, from his perspective, had been invaded by an unknown enemy? Was being enemies necessary? Would they just continue to fight with the grounders until - what, until everyone was dead?

On the Ark, 320 people had died at his insistence, because it was _necessary_.

He would have floated Abby because she broke the law to save a life. She and the child she was carrying would have died for his zealotry. He was still not used to the idea of that child existing in any real sense, but the idea of it _not_ existing because of his actions was abhorrent to him.

_What kind of world do you want our baby to be living in when it arrives?_ Abby had said.

And with those words she was challenging him, provoking him, trying to get under his skin as she so often did. If only she knew she didn't need to try so hard. 

She was already under his skin - more than he liked to admit even to himself. And he already knew she was right. He didn't like to admit that, either, but in this case it was unavoidable.

"We can't keep this up and hope to survive," he murmured, sitting alone in the cell with only the silent grounder for company. "There's got to be a better way."

Because if that baby Abby was having ever hoped to see the light of day then he couldn't just expect that somehow the future would see them all alive and well in a safer and saner world than the one they currently occupied. He would have to do something to make it happen. Or at least he had to try.

He would take that responsibility upon himself as he should have from the start. This was what it came down to; his responsibility, not to take charge and enforce laws that had no relevance in this new world, but to act for the benefit of everyone. 

When he went looking for Abby a short time later, to tell her of his plan, it came as a complete lack of surprise that she was not where she was supposed to be.

She hadn't stayed in her quarters, of course, and she wasn't in medical, either. He only found Jackson patiently rotating someone's shoulder while they winced, and several other patients sitting or lying around the tent. 

The baleful glare Jackson directed his way upon noticing him enter was not particularly surprising. "She's not here," he said, before Marcus even managed to ask.

"Do you know where she is?"

"I know she's not here." Jackson turned back to help his patient again. "You're going to need to keep the sling on for a few more days, there's still a lot of inflammation."

And with that Marcus was dismissed. 

So much for establishing his authority in camp. With his failed attempt at disciplining Abby he'd only succeeded in making himself less popular with those loyal to her. 

He'd aspired to the position of Chancellor for years; the thought of being an unpopular one had never particularly bothered him. And yet here he was, feeling every degree of his inadequacy as a leader as he left the medical tent. 

If he could just find Abby he would at least be absolved of that particular burden. 

He eventually managed to track her down, spotting her standing alone on the outskirts of camp. Her back was to the organised chaos behind her as people went about getting the camp to a somewhat functional state - still very much a work in progress.

Abby was a still point amidst all the activity, arms folded over her chest as she looked out through the hastily erected perimeter fence toward the tree line in the distance. She was thinking of Clarke, of course, anyone could guess that. But she wasn't upset, she wasn't falling apart - that wasn't Abby. No, she was watching the forest as if she could raze it to the ground with her eyes and pluck her missing daughter to safety with the sheer force of her will alone. 

Watching her, he could almost believe it possible.

The woman's tenacity, her single-minded focus, had in the past been a source of so much frustration for him. Now it was a comfort. He was leaving on what could potentially be a suicide mission, but all of Abby's strength, her stubborn resilience, would be here in his place.

For a while he remained unmoving, watching, and thinking about what he was going to say to her. And he found his eyes travelling over her - he could see her in profile from where he stood. Abby was very thin, which wasn't out of the ordinary for those of the Ark, where food had never been an abundant resource. He wasn't sure if he was imagining the slight outward curve of her lower abdomen. 

He knew very little about pregnancy. It hadn't ever been part of his life, being something that happened to other people, to friends or their partners. Before now it had only ever concerned him directly as a potential infraction of Ark law. 

Physically, medically, he was very much at a loss. That was entirely Abby's domain, not his. Maybe there wouldn't be any outward sign of it in her figure at this stage. Maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see; some kind of tangible proof that this was real before he left to seek out the grounder Commander.

While Abby stared out into the wilderness, and he stared at Abby, someone came and stood at his side, which he registered a second before they spoke. 

"Sir." 

He looked over at his second in command, who had clearly noticed the direction of his gaze. This was the second time today Byrne had found him observing Abby like this. He didn't need to ask what she thought about it. Her face spoke volumes.

"Major."

He faced forward again and together they stood and contemplated the problem that was Abigail Griffin. He knew they had very different ideas about what to do about it. He could only imagine Byrne's protests if she knew he wasn't going to punish Abby further, but promote her.

He resolved not to give the Major the news about that until just before he set out, that way she could direct any and all arguments to the new Chancellor. The thought made him smile.

"Exactly how do you intend to handle the situation with Dr Griffin?" Byrne said, exactly on cue.

"I'll let you know."

"Sir -"

"Back to your post, Major."

Visibly clamping down on a retort, Byrne left his side. He had not gained any popularity there, either, but he felt oddly free as he walked over to join Abby at the fence line.

She met his eye only briefly before returning to her vigil. "You should have put a guard on the door," she said.

A laugh escaped him, surprising Abby enough that she turned to give him her full attention. 

"I hope you're better at making rules than you are at following them," he told her. Though really, she couldn't possibly be any worse.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He shook his head mutely. With his eyes lowered they drifted of their own accord to her mid-section. Even from only a metre away he still couldn't be sure if her body had changed at all. He hadn't paid enough attention before to compare. Not even that day in his office when his hands had travelled over so much of her skin...

"You're staring." 

"I know," he said, not stopping.

Abby made a small noise of irritation. "I'm not even showing yet. Am I?"

He shrugged. She was asking him? She made the same noise again. 

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around it," he said.

She rolled her eyes a little. "There's no rush, Marcus. You've got about 5 more months."

He wasn't so sure. He had every hope that she would pass that time safely and deliver a healthy baby, and be as good a mother to it as she was to her first child. He had no such hope for himself. He was attempting to take a positive step towards change, but that kind of optimism was beyond him still. 

There was a good chance once he left the camp he wouldn't return.

"I did hear you, you know. I want to do the right thing," he began to explain. "For all of us."

"The right thing is not sitting around safe behind these walls while those kids are still missing. Dozens of teenagers do not just disappear -"

"I know. That's why I'm leading a mission to bring them back."

As he explained his plan, he could tell he'd surprised her. She had expected to keep beating her head against the wall of his reticence. And she would have done exactly that, no matter what it cost her.

She offered to accompany him on the mission, of course. When he told her he needed her to stay and be chancellor instead of traipsing off into the wild with him he was granted the rare treat of a temporarily speechless Abigail Griffin.

"Please Abby," he said. "For your people."

For a long moment she looked down at the pin he had placed in her hand. Finally she said, "Is this your idea of alternate disciplinary measures? Putting me in charge?"

His lips turned wryly upward. "It's not what I'd call a fun job." 

There was not much else to say at this point. He had to make preparations to leave and there were only so many hours of daylight remaining in which to make a start on their journey.

Except at the thought of leaving her like this, he suddenly felt there was yet more to be said.

"You'll take care of yourself," he said.

She stared blankly back at him.

"Abby."

"Well you, too. Take care of yourself, Marcus," she said.

She was looking at him differently now, since hearing about the mission. The hard edge that had appeared in her eyes when he had sentenced her to be lashed was gone. He was, he thought, on his way to regaining her faith in him. It meant more to him than he felt he could contain in his chest.

"I just want to say -"

"Marcus."

"Thank you."

Her eyes snapped to his, as if that hadn't been what she was expecting him to say. "For what?"

"I'm going to be a father. I didn't think something like this would ever happen to me - on the Ark, it wouldn't have. Couldn't have. You would have terminated, most likely without ever informing me about it. I'm glad I know. I'm glad I... I'm glad."

Abby was either surprised or disturbed at this revelation. He could barely look at her. And his ramblings continued.

"And please don't... don't lie about it. The uh, the issue of paternity. You said - you offered to tell people it was someone else, someone who didn't make it to Earth. I realise it's not my place to tell you what information to reveal about your situation, it's private and no one else's business but -"

"Actually in this case it is your place." She shrugged and said simply, "Fine, I won't lie, it's all on you."

"Oh. All right. Good."

"I'm not saying I'm about to yell it from the rooftop but if I tell anyone who the father is, I'll tell them it's you."

"All right."

Her expression turned dubious. "You look terrified."

"Oh, I am. And not because I'm about to walk into the wilderness of a strange new land and throw myself on the mercy of a ruthless military leader. Although that is a little daunting, too. How about you?"

"Me? I'm a doctor, I'm a mother... and I'm the damn Chancellor now." She smiled, somewhat grimly, as she fixed the pin to her collar. "I've got everything under control."

"Of course you do." 

When he left camp later that day it was without fanfare. His people went about their work unconcerned by the departure of their now-former chancellor. He hadn't expected anyone to see him off. And yet when he turned back briefly at the gate to take it all in one last time he was somehow unsurprised to see Abby there watching him go.

He met her gaze and held it for a few seconds before setting himself back on the path ahead. He kept that image of her with him over the following days and weeks; Chancellor Griffin, in whom he had entrusted the welfare of their people. Abby, as she always appeared to him, defiant, determined, fierce, beautiful.


End file.
